Statement Condemning Tatmadaw Airstrikes Against Unarmed Civilians

Kachin Alliance | January 26, 2018

We are outraged in the strongest term by Tatmadaw’s use of air power against its own citizens, yet again violating the convention of war.

This morning, we woke up to graphic images of a crying mother clutching onto her bleeding infant. Another young mother Maran Seng Ra (29) was killed by Tatmadaw air strike which left her pre-school daughter motherless. These atrocious incidents bear the hallmark of war crime and crime against humanity.

Horrors like these are becoming far too frequent for civilians in Kachin, Arakan, and Shan States. The same army which deliberately fired upon fleeing innocent civilians from helicopter gunships in northern Arakan State to aerial bombing of homes and churches in Mongkoe, northern Shan State, has again targeted amber miners and civilians near the Danai area, western Kachin State, yesterday.

Economic hardship continues to cripple many communities across Burma. Due to such hardship, people like Mr. Tun Tun Naing (27) journeyed from Sagaing Division to Kachin State’s amber mines for economic opportunities. Yesterday, Tun Tun Naing was killed during the rocket attack. Five other innocent civilians, including a two-year-old infant was severely injured. Such deliberate targeting of unarmed civilians was not an accident but rather a decades-old Tatmadaw strategy to terrorize, intimidate, and instill fear in indigenous ethnic communities.

The days of pervasive impunity are over. The NLD government, which campaigned on justice and rule of law, must ensure that everyone who is responsible for such vicious acts against the citizenry is held accountable. The government must be competent to investigate and remove these criminal commanders or seek the United Nations’ assistance for investigation. The longer we wait, the more piling up of innocent bodies there will be; the Union will disintegrate into a broken society, a “failed state.”

If nothing is done, Tatmadaw will continue to use any available weapon to strike against civilians, including those in the government in order to sustain its power. If international community cares, it must stop selling weapons to Tatmadaw. It is time to act against the Burmese military regime. Min Aung Hlaing’s crime against humanity can no longer be answered by empty words.

We call upon:

• The global Christian community to lift us up in your fervent prayers to deliver us from Tatmadaw’s persecution.
• Russia, Isreal, and China to stop selling jets, helicopter gunships, and warheads to the Burmese military.
• The United States and the United Kingdom to take multilateral action with their partners against Tatmadaw by halting all military engagements, sanctioning military officials, and implementing a full arms embargo.
• The NLD government to reject Tatmadaw’s ballooning military budget request of over 1.7 billion US.

Kachin Alliance
Washington, D.C., USA